Canada

On Monday our community had the opportunity to host Roy Norton, the consul general of Canada. Norton kicked off his Indiana tour by meeting in South Bend with local business and community leaders about why Canada is important to Indiana and St. Joseph County. While here, Norton also met with a Canadian company considering a South Bend location. Several months ago we hosted a similar gathering with the Consulate General of Israel and have been working on similar partnership opportunities with local companies interested in doing business in other parts of the world.

During one of his stand-up routines, comedian and late-night host Jon Stewart told a joke that encapsulated the often misunderstood relationship between the United States and Canada. Said Stewart, "A Canadian came up to me and asked, 'What do Americans really think about Canada?' And I was like, 'We don't.' " Bingo. Joke, truth and a growing problem, all spelled out in two words. In many ways, there is no country on Earth more important to the current and future welfare of the United States than Canada -- and yet, many Americans and U.S. politicians barely give our neighbor to the north any thought at all. They should.

No one needs to go hungry or homeless in this country unless they have special problems and prefer the freedom of getting by on their own. Reports on these subjects surface annually, sometimes bi-annually, usually accompanied by plaintive cries for more spending on government programs. One such report was released earlier this week. The Summoned to Stewardship report said Manitoba had the second-highest rate of child poverty in Canada and it made the usual connections between poverty, gang violence, the sex trade and addictions.

TORONTO -- Canadian intelligence agents and police arrested 17 people who had amassed a huge cache of explosives and were ready to bomb public targets, authorities said Saturday. The 12 men and five juveniles were seized in raids Friday night in the suburbs of Toronto. Police said the suspects, most of whom were believed to be Canadian citizens, had assembled three tons of ammonium nitrate and fashioned a cell phone into a detonator. The potential for bloodshed was large. The bomb that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 killed 168 people with two tons of the same chemical fertilizer packed in a truck.

OTTAWA (AP) -- Got change for a million? Canada does: the world's biggest pure gold coin at 220 pounds. Already, three buyers have shelled out for one of the $1 million Canadian coins introduced last week. The Royal Canadian mint made the coins -- 20 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick -- mostly to seize the bragging rights from Austria, which had the record with a 70-pound, 15-inch wide coin. "They're not doing this because there is huge demand for 100-kilo gold coins," Bret Evans, editor of Canadian Coin News said Saturday.

TURIN, Italy (AP) -- Turns out the Canadian women's hockey team piled up those big victory margins for nothing. Canada will be the road team in the gold-medal match Monday night against Sweden despite registering the biggest three-game goal differential in Olympic history during the preliminary round. The team with the biggest goal differential usually gets to be the home team, but there's an obscure International Ice Hockey Federation rule that requires teams to switch home-road designation if they meet for a second time in an international tournament.

SOUTH BEND Â? Stephen R. Gill, a South Bend resident under threat of deportment to Canada, will be allowed to stay here at least through March. Gill learned late last week that U.S. Customs & Border Protection gave him a 90-day extension on a humanitarian parole. That extension expires April 1. Â?IÂ?m happy about it,Â? Gill said Tuesday from his South Bend home. Late last year, Gill had been ordered to leave the country and return to Canada by Monday. Gill is a former adjunct instructor of English at Indiana University South Bend.

OTTAWA (AP) Shania Twain received the Order of Canada on Friday, the country's highest honor. The citation said the Canadian-born singer's journey from a small Ontario town to the pinnacle of the entertainment industry has inspired countless other emerging musicians. "Today, she enjoys enormous success, yet she remains true to her roots," the citation said. "Dedicated to eliminating child hunger, she supports a number of food distribution agencies like food banks and breakfast programs in schools.

SOUTH BEND Â? The local Knights of Columbus will host an international bowling tournament over the next four weekends at the Chippewa Bowl, 225 W. Chippewa Ave. It kicks off with opening ceremonies at noon Saturday, featuring the Knights of Columbus color guard and the mayors of South Bend and Mishawaka. About 500 bowlers are expected over the four weekends from across the Midwest and Canada. The bowlers already have been selected for this invitational tournament. TheyÂ?ll compete from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Skylar Diggins contributed seven points Thursday as the USA Basketball women's U18 national team won its second straight game in the FIBA Americas Championships at Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Washington High School senior again was in the starting lineup and played 23 minutes as the U.S. defeated Canada, 72-56. Diggins hit three of seven shots from the floor and made her only free throw. The victory clinched a berth for the Americans in the 2009 World Championships. The top four teams from the Americas tourney qualify.

ELKHART -- A crowd of about 400 manufacturers and suppliers showed up bright and early Thursday for the RV Power Breakfast at the RV/MH Hall of Fame to learn more about the industry's future. On the heels of an excellent first quarter and projections for the fourth straight year of increased shipments, they received more good news. From north of our borders to the Far East, the short- and long-range forecasts look promising for the industry, said Richard Coon, president of the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association.

SOUTH BEND -- Former General Dynamics executive John C. Ulrich will join AM General Monday as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Ulrich will report directly to Charles M. Hall, president and CEO of AM General. Ulrich will be responsible for overseeing the company's operations, product development and program management. He has more than 35 years manufacturing and engineering experience and has held a variety of leadership positions. Most recently, he was chief operating officer of General Dynamics, Ordnance & Tactical Systems, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Fla. Prior to that, he was president of General Dynamics European Land Systems based in Vienna, where he was responsible for operating units in Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Another school year has begun and I'd like to take a moment to ask everyone out there to consider volunteering at their local school. It doesn't take much time; maybe you are able to do an hour a week or only an hour one day out of the year. You don't have to be a PTA member, although you are always more than welcome. Maybe you can help during book fair, field day or simply by asking your child's teacher if he or she could use some help in the classroom sometime. How much you volunteer doesn't matter, it's that whatever you can do means so much to teachers, the school and, most of all, the children.

New Carlisle's Irina Kovach is one of 12 players selected for the 21U US All-Star women's baseball team. Kovach, a senior at LaLumiere High School, allowed only three hits and one unearned run in five games during the summer baseball season. She also has batted .400 during the summer season. The US All-Stars will compete in a five-game series at the Women's Baseball World Cup Tournament in Edmonton, Canada.

In a back-and-forth thriller, Canada downed the United States, 11-9, in overtime Saturday night in pool play at the Federation of International Lacrosse U19 World Championships in Turku, Finland. Canada became the first team to defeat the U.S. in U19 international play since sanctioned competition began in 1988. The U.S., which has won all six gold medals contested, is now 37-1 all-time. Matt Kavanagh, an incoming freshman at Notre Dame, led all scorers with two goals and two assists for the U.S (1-1)

SOUTH BEND -- It pierced Natalie Achonwa's heart at Team Canada's first exhibition game, against China in British Columbia, when the Canadian national women's basketball team lined up for the pre-game ceremony. "We all lined up, and when we sing the anthem, we all have our hands behind each other's backs," said Achonwa, a junior-to-be on the Notre Dame women's basketball team. "The first time the anthem played, I almost cried. I was standing there tearing. All of us, we belted it out. We were singing at the top of our lungs.

Notre Dame junior Natalie Achonwa will represent Canada in the upcoming Olympic Games in London. The Canadians locked up a berth in the Games on Sunday by defeating Japan, 71-63, in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Ankara, Turkey. Achonwa, who is from Guelph, Ontario, played in four of Canada's five games at the tournament, missing the final game with an ankle injury suffered Saturday during her team's 58-41 semifinal win over Argentina.

SOUTH BEND -- The Canada geese put up little fight Thursday morning while being rounded up by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources -- aside from a few squawks and flapping of the wings. Their inability to fly at this point in the year likely played more of a role than their manners, though. But either way, the biologists had little trouble directing dozens of the geese as they walked single file from the river bank to a makeshift cage set up along Riverside Drive at the St. Joseph River.

SOUTH BEND - The Canada geese put up little fight Thursday morning while being rounded up by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources ¿ aside from a few squawks and flapping of the wings. Their inability to fly at this point in the year likely played more of a role than their manners, though. But either way, the biologists had little trouble directing dozens of the geese as they walked single file from the river bank to a makeshift cage set up along Riverside Drive at the St. Joseph River.

During one of his stand-up routines, comedian and late-night host Jon Stewart told a joke that encapsulated the often misunderstood relationship between the United States and Canada. Said Stewart, "A Canadian came up to me and asked, 'What do Americans really think about Canada?' And I was like, 'We don't.' " Bingo. Joke, truth and a growing problem, all spelled out in two words. In many ways, there is no country on Earth more important to the current and future welfare of the United States than Canada -- and yet, many Americans and U.S. politicians barely give our neighbor to the north any thought at all. They should.